Ukulele master Jake Shimabukuro is at Lexington's Cary Hall June 19

Friday

By the time he was 4 years old, Hawaii native Jake Shimabukuro was so enthralled by his mom’s ukulele strumming – and by her beautiful singing voice – he, too, wanted to learn how to play.

“So, she taught me a few chords, and I just fell in love with it,” said Shimabukuro by phone from his home in Honolulu.

Now 42, he’s more than two decades into his professional career, and if there was such a title as “world’s foremost ukulele player,” it would belong to him. He’s certainly the most renowned, having reached celebrity status practically overnight when, in 2005, a video of him doing a gentle, yet exciting and complex solo instrumental version of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” in Central Park went viral.

Shimabukuro will be playing selections from his most recent album “The Greatest Day” at Cary Hall in Lexington on June 19, and the set list will likely include originals – the energetic “Pangram,” the Western-flavored “Mahalo John Wayne – as well as covers – watch out for his intricate and kinda crazy take on Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”; hold on to your seat if he and his trio members – Nolan Verner on bass and Dave Preston on guitar – launch into Hendrix’s “If 6 Was 9.”

Long before Shimabukuro began working up such an eclectic repertoire, he stuck to a steady diet of traditional Hawaiian ukulele (he pronounces it “ookulaylee”) songs.

“But when I was in high school, friends and other musicians started getting me to listen to different styles of music,” he said. “Some of them liked pop music, some of them liked jazz, some liked rock ’n’ roll, others loved Broadway tunes. They would share all this music with me, and I was fascinated by all of it. So, I started experimenting more with the ukulele and playing different styles of music.”

Shimabukuro had already made a name for himself as a master of the ukulele before that casual Central Park performance. He went pro in 1997, played in several bands in Hawaii, the best known of which was Pure Heart, and went solo in 2000, signing his first record deal with Sony Music in Japan and spending half of each year doing radio, television, and live concerts there.

He was regularly touring, but only in Japan and Hawaii when, in 2004, he had the opportunity to perform in New York, which is when he made his visit to Central Park.

Later, back home, some friends who were going to college on the mainland called and said there was a video of him circulating their campus.

“I didn’t know what they were talking about,” he said. “So, they forwarded it to me through email, I clicked on the link, and the video popped up. Now, back then my name wasn’t even on that video. It just said something like Asian guy shreds on ukulele (laughs). But it just kind of took off. Finally, someone posted it with my name on it, and it continued to make its way around the Internet.”

And Shimabukuro became an international ukulele superstar.

Shimabukuro took things to another level with his solo adaptation of “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

“I was in Japan when I got the idea to try it,” he said. “Someone was interviewing me and asked, ‘Do you think any song is possible to play on the ukulele?’ My response was, ‘If you can hum it, then you should be able to at least play it so that it’s recognizable.’ Then they said, ‘Well, can you play “Bohemian Rhapsody?”’ I said, ‘Well, I’ve never tried.’ I remember wondering, later that night, what it would sound like on ukulele. That’s what prompted that journey.”

A standout tune on “The Greatest Day” is “Mahalo John Wayne,” which starts out in a delicate manner, turns very electrifying, then morphs into a sort of homage to soundtrack music from Westerns.

“It’s a tribute to John Wayne,” said Shimabukuro. “My dad’s favorite John Wayne movie was ‘Big Jake.’ That’s why he named me Jake. I wanted to do a little tribute to him, and mahalo in Hawaiian means thank you. So, it’s ‘Thank you, John Wayne, because I got my name from you.’”

At the Cary Hall show, Shimabukuro plans to start by himself, doing a couple of solo numbers.

“Then I’ll bring on the guys, and we’ll just kind of go for it,” he said. “That presents a little more variety and gives me the opportunity to experiment and try some new ideas.”

In fact, he’s always experimenting, often at home.

“I have ukuleles hanging all over the house,” he said. “I could be in the living room and if I get an idea, I’ll pick the ukulele off the wall and play a little bit. I have one in the bedroom. I have one upstairs in my studio. It’s nice to have that immediate accessibility. I even keep one in the car because sometimes if I’m waiting in the car to pick up my son, I’m playing my ukulele.”